The present invention relates generally to cleaning devices and more specifically to a cleaning device having removable tanks and latches for the tanks.
The ability to use removable waste fluid as well as water tanks are well known in fluid cleaning devices. A typical example of a removable waste water tank is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 25,939.
Side by side fresh water and waste fluid tanks may be mounted about the handle with their bottom ends received in a recess in the cleaner and their top ends retained by a movable collar as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,505. Since this patent uses gravity flow dispensing with simple valves, alignment of the outlets is not critical.
A concentric fresh water tank and dirty fluid tanks as a common housing with a handle acting as a latch is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,491,398. Another concentric removable construction is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,072. This is another gravity feed system and thus alignment of the outlet is not critical. Another concentric fresh water and waste fluid container which is detachably secured to a frame is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,040,362. The top is received in the bottom of the fluid separator and the bottom which has a gravity feed and is held in place by a cam which rotates about the longitudinal axis of the fluid container. The rotation of the cam moves the container up into the outlet of the separator housing. As with the previous devices, since it is a gravity feed, the alignment of the bottom outlet of the water container is not critical.
Systems which use a pressurized water supply generally attached the cleaning device to an external pressurized water supply. Thus, there is no alignment problem. Such device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,844.
An object of the present invention is to provide a unique cam latch which can be used with a removable tank.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a unique cam latch which allows alignment and latching of a removable tank of water to be used in a pressurized water system.
These and other objects of the invention are attained by a cam assembly mounted to the cleaning device and engaging the bottom of the liquid container for moving the top of the container into a collar and a latch for engaging the cam to lock the cam and the container in its final position. The tank includes a recess in its bottom wall and a camming surface in the base of the recess. The cam lying in the recess initially aligns the container to the cleaning device. The container also includes a longitundinal keyway which receive a key on the cleaning surface to assure aligned axial movement of the container in response to rotation of the cam. The cam is generally L-shaped and includes a camming surface and a handle. The latch is also L-shaped and mounted to the same pivot point as the cam and latches the cam in its final locked position.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.